May 27, 2017

Ne c’est pas la raison d’etre

As Ethics in Journalism Week draws to a close, we learn that it’s been the Teachers Lounge, not the Journalism Office, where Daffy and Ms. Rizk have been having their convo (and where Ms. Rizk’s earrings have fluctuated in size from typically Milford large to ear buds to visible from space). So much for that juicy story about MHS providing coffee for the Trumpet staff. Ms. Rizk makes the dual mistake of taking that convo outside into the hallway and ending it with enough of a thread of plausibility that Daffodil will run with it like a kid with the good scissors.

Now let’s sit back and watch Dafunk ruin her hard-earned rep as a hard-nosed journalist (not to mention what she’ll do to Van Auken’s) by turning into just another gossipy teen playing telephone and spreading rumors. Between the small-town gossips and the Coaches Thorp’s reps for not developing talent, it’ll be a cold day in hell before any out-of-towner with a promising athlete for a child willingly moves to Milford.

Life’s a bowl of pits when you’re lying on a parade float, waiting for the parade to commence, while attempting to cheer up your BFF whose journalism career is suddenly stuck in neutral. And as teenchy inferred, sports of ANY kind is not on the checklist at the moment. The consolation prize to all of this is that Ms. Rizk is wise enough to not to be caught up with Elviney and Loweezy at the gossip fence about Snuffy Smith’s escapades with a 14-year-old. The camera might pan back to the baseball diamond(gotta start somewhere) but I’m not holding my breath.

I see Rowdyman’s point– the sleeves on the girl in blue are different than in panel 1, but I’m still pretty sure that’s Daffy. And that she’s about to make a terrible mistake, namely telling ?Carrie the Van Auken story. Secrets among more than two people have a half life of about 37 minutes, because everyone has someone they can’t bear to keep in the dark.

Gotta say, Ms. Rizk is playing this all wrong. As a teenager girl herself, Dafne is likely to identify with Cane’s *alleged* victim and (rightly) worry that there’s a temper-prone abuser in their midst.

Even worse, Rizk’s statement in panel 2 sounds like something right out of the Baylor University Cover-Up Playbook. She ought to be teaching Dafne a valuable journalistic lesson on how to handle a sensitive story, not just trying to quash Dafne’s very reasonable curiosity.

I could easily be wrong– I often am– but I think Ms Rizk’s point is that while the story was a big deal in Central City a year ago, there is no need to tell it in Mfnrd UNLESS there is reason to think Ryan presents a threat there. School papers do not make a practice of publicizing students’ past offenses, or for the most part, present ones.

[…] it on in defense of their son. Granted the Valley is full of gossips with nothing better to do than play telephone and potentially ruin some kid’s life, but dad’s overreacting a bit himself. It’s […]